Wright’s Writing Corner. On Animals.

The lovely and talented wife continues her post on Mortimer Adler’s list of the 101 ‘Great Ideas’. We continue with ‘Animals.’ This is a repost of her previous article.

http://arhyalon.livejournal.com/276571.html

Excerpt:

Nowadays, the shelves of the children’s and young adult sections of the book store are filled with books on vampires and magic schools. It was not like that when I was young. There were very few books about magic. Mainly, if you liked enchantment, you were limited to fairy tales and books of myth.

But there were many, many, many books on animals.

Every weekend from age 8 to 17, I volunteered at a local Nature Museum. It was not a formal arrangement. My parents would drop us off there and go jogging. One day, I approached the staff while they were building a display and offered to help. They gave me the task of sticking dried grass into corrugated cardboard, to form the effect of a grassy field.

I was hooked. I loved the people who worked there. I loved helping. I showed up and found tasks to do regularly for the next nine years, sweeping, cleaning, painting lines from Tolkien on the walls, helping carrying things during the nature programs the staff gave. You name it.